San Francisco/Bay Area Salsa & Latin Jazz: Interviews: Adalberto Alvarez

Aldalberto Alvarez:
Siempre Son, Siempre Sonero Mayor

Next to Casa de la Música in Havana, Cuba, is an outdoor cafe complete with palm trees, shaded tables, music and of course, food and drink. Maestro Adlalberto Alvarez arrived there for our scheduled interview one afternoon. Inspite of his busy day and upcoming tours, Adalberto was smiling and attentive as ever as we began to talk.

Q: Tell us a little of your history.
Adalberto Alvarez: My history is easily summarized. We start with the family aspect. Family is the foundation of all that I do today. My father is a musician, sonero, and he lives in Camaguey. He has a band called "Los Soneros de Camacho." My father’s name is Enrique Álvarez and my mother was a also a singer in a Camaguey choir–she’s retired now, but continues to sing.

From my parents on, the whole family has been filled with musicians. I’m my mother’s only son, but I have several brothers on my dad’s side and they’re all musicians as well. My brother Enrique Álvarez is the director of "La Charanga Latina." My brother Luis who plays in the band with me, plays the timbal. Another one of my brothers, Román, who is enrolled in theSchool of Fine Arts, plays the bass and he is the director of The National Music School. My brother Jorge plays with Enrique, he plays the flute. As you can see, it’s a whole family of musicians.

I became interested in music when I was a small boy, but my first experience was with my father’s band which back then was called "Conjunto Avance Juvenil de Camaguey." I was a boy and had the fortune of meeting, through my father, the great ones who would visit and play in Camaguey. Chapotín, Benny Moré— all of these individuals who I was able to meet at my home because they were my father’s friends.

And that’s where this whole story of me becoming a musician came from. My other vocation was to become an airplane pilot. In the end, I decided to become a musician. My first experience as a band leader/director was with my father’s band. I went to the School of Fine Arts –I graduated from there, then went to work in Camaguey to do my social service, as they call it here, and there I was a music literature professor. I shared spent my time being both a professor and the leader of my father’s band.

One day, a friend of mine who’s name is Romulfo Dayan, from Santiago, proposed forming a band in Santiago. At that point I created "Son 14," a band which I founded in 1978 and which I directed until 1983. There I wrote many songs that are now renowned in the world, which were interpreted by great musicians like Gilberto Santa Rosa, Oscar D’Leon, La Sonora Ponceña, Papo Luca, Ray Barretto, Juan Luis Guerra, Luis Ramirez and Roberto Roena. I have the fortune that all the great salsa performers, many of them, have done a tune that I wrote.

Five years with "Son 14" and in 1984 I founded "Adalberto Alvarez y su Son," February 26, 1984. So we’ve had 17 years of uninterrupted labor. Many musicians have come and gone, many singers, but the band has had a seal. The seal of compositions that I give it and a little bit of the orchestrations as well, which, when I don’t do them, I make sure that the person who handles the orchestration for the band is within the same style of work I’ve been doing all these years.

Going through the years and coming to the musical actuality of the band, it is in a period of getting new blood injected into it. You could see in the concerts that there are a lot of young people. All of these young individuals have graduated from the Superior Arts Institute–with the exception of the vocalists who are, as I say, from the land, from the streets, individuals who were born with the sonero inside them. We finished recording our most recent work entitled "Jugando con Candela". I think that it is an excellent recording and it is a pity that the record company didn’t do all the work it could have done on a worldwide level. The record came out in no other part of the world besides the United States, and so, unfortunately, the record company did a very poor job. We’re currently, and I tell you this as gossip for the world to know, in the process of breaking away from this company because it hasn’t turned out to be what we expected. Van Van was also signed with this company and they won a Grammy, but nothing happened with their recording on a worldwide level. So the record company had internal problems and they divided, but it was us, the artists, who ended up paying for their problems and a record that was so good had to be wasted.

I’m working on compositions for a new recording in the future. Let’s hope that we are lucky so that whomever we record with will do worldwide distribution, as it should be. A singer that we had previously left the band to start his own and we quickly incorporated three singers so all the repertoire doesn’t fall on the shoulders of one person.

I have found three singers who each have a very unique style and I am pleased with the work they’re doing because I think each one has a very interesting timbre and that it impacts the work of the group. When there are more singers, you better appreciate the group’s work–the work isn’t centered around one person. You can see the collective work, which is what I like, that everyone is in and everyone sings and everyone does their part and does it well. That’s why working on that foundation right now. Thank God we have had a lot luck. People are assimilating the changes in the band really well.

There are some who say that the band is better now. We have worked arduously, very hard, to grasp every detail. The musicians who have just come on board are musicians who of a very high level and I think that’s interesting.

We are at the door of several presentations around the world. We recently returned from a tour in Japan, with auditoriums filled to room capacity, and now we’re getting ready for our tour around the United States, which will include cities in California and also New York. The most interesting aspect of the tour is that we’ll be performing at the Vanity Fair [Academy Awards] party for the second time. I think it’s an important detail to take note of because they asked us again, after having been there the year before last. There must be a reason why they’re calling us back.

We’re thinking we might be back in the United States in the summer again. After the U.S. tour right now, we’ll be performing at a son festival in Venezuela. Venezuela is from May 11 through May 26, and then we’ll be doing another son festival that I’m directing in Cancun, Mexico, in July, from the 4^th through the 8^th, Gilberto Santarosa, Andy Montañez, Joe Arroyo, Los Soneros de Camacho–my father’s band, Osdaji–a female cuban singer who does son, and Cheo Feliciano have been invited. It’s going to be a beautiful festival. They have all said that they will be there to perform and my band, logically, will be the base band for the festival. This will be in July and from there we’re going to the Southeast of Mexico to do a 10 presentation tour. So, the year is packed with work and on top of that we have our regular Wednesday nights at La Casa de la Música where we have our little corner. Here’s where we test all our songs, where we release new things we want to do, where we invite performers to come share with us. Papín and Juan Fernández, as well as young people who do music, come here.

I bring them here every Wednesday and everyone who comes, both Cuban and tourists, know they have us here. It’s important for that to be known, that every Wednesday that we’re in Cuba our band performs at Casa de la Música.

Q: Any another projects with other artists?
AA: Yes, for instance, tomorrow I am singing with a young woman who’s name is Anaís Abreu. She recorded a CD and wants me to sing a duet with her. She’s a very, very good Cuban singer. I am also working on a big project with a company in the United States who wants me to put music to the Pope’s prayers. It’s an interesting project in which the Pope’s prayers will be read by star performers from around the world–from the United States, Italy and the Americas. I have seen the face of Hollywood luminaries, I have seen them saying the prayers and this company wants me to put music to them.

It’s a very interesting project that has the Pope’s approval. This has kept me quite busy because it’s a beautiful project. Independent of that, I’m probably inviting Andy Montañez and Papo Luca to do one song each on our next recording.

Q: For the next recording, do you already have the company you’re working with?
AA: There are proposals, many proposals and we’re trying to finalize this litigious matter with Caliente [records] to see the proposals we have for recording.

Q: Do you have any idea of when this next recording will be out?
AA: This year I should be done with the songs for the next record by May or June so we have the whole repertoire for the CD completed.

Q: Have you considered recording different styles like jazz, for instance?
AA: Those who follow me know me as a sonero. If I did something else they would probably reproach it. So, I enjoy jazz, I love it, I enjoy it in an incredible way, but in order to projec myself to the audience, it is son that I perform. If I’m invited to do something, I go do it. However, if there’s something that I have learned to do in life, it is son.

I thanked Adalberto for his time. A great maestro, he continues to shine and produce great music.